New York Meyer alto sax challenge: Part 2!! Meyer, JJ Babbitt, Morgan, Boston Sax Shop, Theo Wanne.

Hello, everyone! Have you ever wanted to know how the JJ Babbitt Connoisseur Meyer Bros, Boston Sax Shop M Series, Theo Wanne New York Bros, Morgan Jazz New York, and JJ Babbitt Meyer New York 100th Anniversary edition mouthpieces compare to each other and to a true vintage Meyer New York USA mouthpiece? Well, you came to the right place!

With the help of one of my long time students, Dr. Mark, I am able to release a second Meyer New York alto sax challenge video! Dr. Mark graciously loaned me three of his fantastic (and $$$) mouthpieces! In this video I am doing a play test of some of the most famous, if not the most famous, Meyer York style alto saxophone mouthpieces!

I do a short comparison in the video, but if you have any questions about specifics, I can answer the best I can in the comments!

Written comparison:
In general, all of the mouthpieces had a similar core sound and a similar blowing response. I feel like a lot of the difference is in the mouthpiece baffle shape and body size. I would say they all fit within the parameters of a medium sound. The Boston Sax shop goes into the medium dark range, and the Morgan goes into the medium bright range. The Boston Sax Shop mouthpiece was the darkest and softest, but I would point out that it also had the thinnest side rails I have ever seen on a mouthpiece! Ted Klum and Brian Powell make some thin rails, but this was like 75% of the thickness of the work I had seen from them. On the brighter side of things, with the Morgan, the body is particularly smaller than the other mouthpieces. Variables such as side rail thickness, and actual body thickness do make a difference to the mouthpiece sound and response.
I should point out here that I did not adjust the audio at all for mouthpiece recording. I recorded it completely dry like I usually do so you can hear the character of the mouthpiece itself. So my voice is not loud enough at times. This way you could still hear the softest mouthpiece, Boston Sax Shop, without the Morgan being overly loud as the loudest mouthpiece. You can also use the volume of each mouthpiece itself to provide some information.

In previous video I just improvised over two key centers and tried to keep the use of range similar, I believe I played in E Minor and then F Major. In this video, in order to have a more equal comparison, I played the first page of Charlie Parker's solo on Embraceable you (found on JSP Records JSP915) and a soon to be released etude I composed over the harmony of Isfahan. You should find a more direct comparison of the mouthpieces this way.

Charlie Parker Omnibook: Volume 2 can be found here!

https://www.halleonard.com/product/26...


Below I will share a link to where each mouthpiece I recorded in this video can be purchased. *Disclaimer- The Meyer Bros and Meyer 100th Anniversary were refaced and may not play exactly like when purchased new

JJ Babbitt Meyer Bros Connoisseur mouthpiece
https://jjbabbitt.com/the-meyer-bros-...

JJ Babbitt 100th Anniversary Meyer New York
https://jjbabbitt.com/meyer-new-york/

Morgan Jazz New York
https://www.morganmouthpieces.com/pro...

Theo Wanne NY Bros (*New York Bros 1 is discontinued. Link is for NY Bros 2)
https://theowanne.com/product/nybros-...

Boston Sax Shop M-Series
https://www.bostonsaxshop.com/shop/p/...

Links to webpages where you can find the mouthpiece refacers referenced in this video

Arnold Montgomery
https://www.ammouthpieces.com/

Bradford Behn
https://www.clarinetmouthpiece.com/re...

Brian Powell
https://www.mouthpieceguys.com/

Ted Klum
https://www.tedklum.com/


Gear in video
Alto Saxophone - Yanagisawa WO2 with 66 neck
Ligature - Vandoren Optimum
Reed - D'addario New Design 2.5
Neck Strap - Just Joes
Recording Interface - Steinberg UR22C
Microphone - AKG P220

Timecodes
0:00 - Intro
0:17 - Mouthpieces to be played
1:13 - How I will do the play test
2:24 - JJ Babbitt Meyer Connoisseur
3:45 - Morgan Jazz New York
5:01 - Theo Wanne NY Bros
6:19 - JJ Babbitt Meyer New York 100th Anniversery
7:38 - Boston Sax Shop M Series
8:54 - Meyer New York vintage
10:09 - Comments about each mouthpiece
13:00 - Final Thoughts